Stuck Fermintation ???? :?

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xdodge

Junior
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I started a 5 gal batch of pear wine from pear juice that i made in the juicer last fall and froze it till now.

5 gal pear juice (sg 1040)
10 tsp acid blend
2.5 tsp pectic enzyme
1 1/4 tsp grape tannin
5 tsp yeast nutrient
4 lbs raisins
added sugar to 1088 sg

fermentation was strong with lots of foam after the first day
by day 6 fermentation slowed and sg was 1000.

I thought I would try out my new vacuum pump to transfer it to the carboy.
now this is not you average vacuum pump, it has a 1 hp motor, it really sucks !!!! So when i started to transfer and got about 2 inches in the carboy the foam went crazy and it foamed all the way to the top of carboy. I shut off the pump let it settle and repeat the same process till all was all transferred. I left all the sediment in the primary. But now I an not getting any bubbles at all in my carboy ????? my other batches of pear and apple bubbled for at least a month. could i have killed it with the vacuum or did all the yeast get left in the primary.

What should I do?:?

Thanks Allan
 
Allan:

First, visual signs of fermentation are extremely unreliable.

Bubbles in the air-lock are caused by CO2 in the wine escaping. Vacuum racking removed the CO2 (foam is LOTS of bubbles).

An sg of 1.000 indicates that the wine is almost finished fermenting, so very little CO2 is being generated.

Be patient (common advice on this forum), and take another sg reading after a few days. Then you will know what is happening.

BTW what is the temperature of the wine?

Steve
 
This wine could very well be done but like cpfan said youll need to wait at least 1 or 2 days to see if the sg is going down. When you were racking that was mostly (99%) C02 being released from your wine hence the explosion that youve seen. Does that pump have a gauge on it Cause Id be very careful to make sure it does not exceed around 22" of vacuum or you could implode a carboy. Ive taken my pump up that high many times with no problem so I know thats safe but cant exceed that as my pump has a built in limiter, I dont know what the actual breaking point of a carboy is so just be safe.
 

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